A HANDFUL OF FORTITUDE & GRATITUDE, TERESA SABANKAYA
- Jennifer Jewell
- Dec 3, 2020
- 4 min read
In a year in which gardeners and other humans alike are having to meet and process and pivot around and over and beyond a wide variety of challenges and lessons, sometimes we just need a message of hope and beauty – small gestures of love and care that make a difference.
Teresa Sabankaya is a floral designer, founder and creative mind and heart beyond behind the of Bonny Doon Garden Company in Santa Cruz, California. A pioneer of the Slow Flower movement. Famous for her posies which update and integrate the Victorian language of flowers, her recent book "The Posy Book: Garden Inspired Bouquets that Tell a Story" embodies just that kind of plant-based hand-held gesture that sometimes means everything.
"Do you remember the first time you received flowers?
More than likely you do, and you undoubtedly
remember how it made you feel. There is nothing
that makes you feel more loved and cared for
than a gift of flowers.”
Teresa Sabankaya, Bonny Doon Garden Company
You can follow Teresa’s work and find out more about posies, "The Posy Book", and her newest posy kits for things like the Holiday Warmth or Fortitude Posy (because we could all use a little fortification right now, I'm guessing) : bonnydoongardenco.com, on Instagram @bonnydoongarden/
Join us again next week when we continue our winter greening cheer in conversation with Todd Carr and Carter Harrington of Hort and Pott, a botanical workshop in Upstate NY dedicated to embracing the seasons, celebrating the natural world through handcrafted botanical works, and reimagining the relationships between people and the natural world through botanically driven design. You won’t want to miss this cozy winter fireside chat awakening the sublime. Listen in next week!
RELATED EPISODES INCLUDE:
-Holiday Blooms with Thomas Broom-Hughes
THINKING OUT LOUD this week..
If I were to make you a posy right now with things in my garden, a posy that would mean Shared Garden and Nature Appreciation it would be filled with: bright red rose hips from my Iceberg rose bushes, dried oregano blooms which still hold a bit of pink blush, light catching wheat colored seed heads of a native deer grass, a few plush silvery accents of native Salvia leucophylla and a cluster of bright red toyon berries from a garden shrub. These would all be skirted by dark green small leaved branches (almost boxwood like) of native manzanita 'Big Sur' from my front dry summer gravel garden. And they would be tied up with a white fabric ribbon.
I love this stuff.
And a heads up – if you love this kind of thing too, AND if you live in California. Did you know I am a CELEBRITY judge for a convivial fun-loving competition being hosted by the California Native Plant Society this season called WREATH MASTERS. Please find all details for submitting here: https://www.cnps.org/wreathmasters
And the judging will be held live (virtual live - you know) on October 18th!
A funny story: the kind folks at CNPS sent me the invite and as I love making wreaths more than just about anything this time of year I said yes. When they then sent me the layout with bio photos of the three person Celebrity Judge panel – I looked at the wow beauty and dashing design of my gorgeous fellow judges Katie Chirgotis of Eothen Floral Design along the central coast, and Maurice Harris of Bloom and Plume in LA, and said: I look like everyone’s fifth grade teacher scolding us NOT TO TOUCH THE FLOWERS.
So I made a John take a new photo of me - Haha – it’s not Katie or Maurice (yes I am a total fan girl here) but it’s a far better representation of the great joy I take in this season and our incredible biodiversity of generous plant life here in the California Floristic Province.
And, I am getting better on the far side of a camera the older I get. You let me know – the new photo is better for a celebrity wreath judge, yes?
All photos used courtesy of The Bonny Doon Garden Co.
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